Japanese banker bets on clean energy, compassion

Bankers – not the most well-respected citizens these days. Deservedly or not, they tend to be seen as fat cats who enrich themselves at the expense of their fellow citizens.

So maybe bankers looking to rehabilitate their image could take a lesson from Tsuyoshi Yoshiwara – a Japanese banker who’s recently made a name for himself as a crusader against nuclear power… and FOR human decency. Catherine Winter reports for The World.

According to Invitalia, the Italian government’s agency for investments and economic development, a favorable climate is responsible for boosting renewables. Italy is blessed with ample sunshine and abundant breezes.

“When it rains it pours,” goes the cliché. But in Italy, there’s another meteorological maxim, reserved for renewables: Where the sun really shines and the wind really blows, billions of dollars of government funding will follow. That has made solar and wind lucrative businesses, a magnet for the Sicilian mob.

The Cosa Nostra is adapting, acquiring more advanced knowledge in new areas like renewable energy that have become more profitable because of government subsidies. It is casting a shadow over our renewables industry.

Here’s how the Mafia manipulates the renewables industry. A solar company trying to tap into those generous government subsidies will invariably bump up against Italy’s most bountiful natural resource — a mountain of bureaucratic red tape.

A few weeks ago, in early April, the Italian police struck back, seizing more than 1.3 billion Euro (about $1.7 billion) in assets from Vito Nicastri, a Sicilian green energy business magnate believed to be a mafia frontman. Nicastri controls one of the largest wind and solar conglomerates in Italy. His nickname is “Il Signore del Vento” – Lord of the Wind.